LOW CARBON BUILDING RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY · for low carbon buildings, research policy and sustainable design. The group leads a portfolio of evidence-based cutting-edge research

LOW CARBON BUILDING RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY

FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY, DESIGN AND ENVIRONMENT

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

LOW CARBON BUILDING GROUP


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LOW CARBON BUILDING GROUPThe group, within the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development, is an interdisciplinary team with an international profile in the field of energy and building research. The group holds world-leading expertise in carbon counting and common carbon metrics, building performance evaluation, advanced low-carbon refurbishment, climate change adaptation and low carbon communities. Publications by the group are recognised references for low carbon buildings, research policy and sustainable design. The group leads a portfolio of evidence-based cutting-edge research and consultancy projects, with a wide range of UK, European and international organisations.

OUR PHILOSOPHYAdvancing research, education, policy support, design and industry practices for a low carbon built environment.

� Producing and disseminating research findings of relevance and benefit to the professions and wider society

� Achieving national and international standards of excellence in research

� Accelerating effective knowledge exchange with government and industry

� Providing learning and teaching at the leading edge of the field

CONTENTSResearch expertise and services 3

Building performance feedback and post-occupancy evaluation 4

Climate change adaptation of buildings and neighbourhoods 5

Carbon counting and carbon mapping 6

Evaluating low carbon communities 7

Advanced low carbon refurbishment 8

Global common carbon metrics 9

Teaching and resource base 10

Testimonial 11


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RESEARCH EXPERTISE AND SERVICESWe offer expert services in measuring, modelling, mapping and managing energy use, energy demand and associated carbon dioxide emissions at both community and individual building scales, and at all stages of the building lifecycle, from conceptual briefing and design development to post construction testing and in-use evaluation.

To date our research and consultancy projects have been funded by UK Research Councils (ESRC, EPSRC), European Commission, The World Bank, UNEP, UK Government Technology Strategy Board (TSB), Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), British Council, Energy Saving Trust and industry.

Our main areas of expertise are centred around the following themes:


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BUILDING PERFORMANCEFEEDBACK AND POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION

EVALUATING AND FINE TUNING BUILDINGS TO MEET TARGETS

CARBON COUNTING AND CARBON MAPPING

URBAN/COMMUNITY SCALE TOPGRAPHICAL CARBON ANALYSIS

ADVANCED LOW CABON REFURBISHMENT

WHOLE HOUSE REFURBISHMENT TO ACHIEVE MORE THAN 70% REDUCTION IN CARBON EMISSIONS

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION OF BUILDINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOODS

FUTURE PROOFING THROUGH OPTIMUM ADAPTATION

EVALUATING LOW CARBON COMMUNITIES

ASSESSING THE IMPACT AND LIMITATIONS OF COMMUNITY LED CARBON INITIATIVES

CLOBAL COMMON CARBON METRICS

DEVELOPING A UNIVERSAL METHOD OF MEASURING A BUILDINGS’S CARBON FOOTPRINT


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BUILDING PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: PHYSICAL MONITORING AND POST OCCUPANCY EVALUATION

The pressing need to meet carbon targets has spurred the growth of low carbon buildings and technologies throughout the world. However the growing performance gap between the designed and measured energy performance of buildings is a serious stumbling block towards realizing our targets.

Building performance evaluation uses our extensive monitoring resources in combination with post-occupancy evaluation techniques to collect information on energy performance, environmental conditions, fabric performance and qualitative feedback from building owners and managers, design and construction team, FM managers and occupants to detect issues in operation, construction and fine tune the building to meet its design targets and close the performance gap between as-designed, as-built and in-use energy performance.

Our portfolio of projects spans the evaluation of building performance and occupant comfort in a wide range of domestic and non-domestic buildings, both new-build and refurbishments, across varied life cycle stages. Our key current projects are:

ANGMERING COMMUNITY CENTRE Understanding the effects of design and handover process in the in-use performance of a low carbon public building.

CRAWLEY LIBRARY BUILDING A TSB funded In-Use Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) study of an award-winning exemplar of sustainable public building design.

CODE LEVEL 5 HOMES, SWINDON | P 1 Post construction testing of ‘as-built’ performance against ‘as-designed’, evaluation of the handover process and initial occupant feedback.

CODE LEVEL 5 HOMES, SWINDON | P 2 A two year comprehensive evaluation study of building materials, micro generation solutions and occupant satisfaction.

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CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION OF BUILDINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOODS: Our work in climate change adaption involves:

� Establishing the extent of climate change impact and risk for the neighbourhood and buildings being tested.

� Minimising the risk and negative impacts of a changing climate via adaptation measures that have been proven to be effective through simulation and empirical research.

While the EPSRC-funded SNACC project focuses on identifying effective, practical, acceptable means of suburban re-design and adaptation to changing climate at a neighbourhood scale, a wide range of TSB funded Design for Future Climates projects involve live architectural projects in Bicester, Ebbw Vale, Welwyn Garden city, Oxford and Liverpool. These project develop, test and implement robust climate change adaptation packages for specific building typologies and locations, that will mitigate projected future climate change risks in the areas of comfort, construction and water management.

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SUBURBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD ADAPTATION FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE

SUBURBAN REDESIGN

NW BICESTER ECO TOWN

ECO DEVELOPMENT IN BICESTER PLANNED TO DELIVER 500 HOMES

COLDMILL SCHOOL

NEW BUILT SCHOOL FOR 1200 STUDENTS IN EBBW VALE IN BLAENAU GWENT

Q. ELIZABETH II HOSPITAL

8000 SQM PURPOSE BUILT HEALTHCARE FACILITY IN WELWYN GARDEN CITY

DRAGON JUNIOR SCHOOL

LOW ENERGY SCHOOL IN OXFORD

EDGE LANE : TIME PROJECT

MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY ON A BROWNFIELD SITE IN LIVERPOOL


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CARBON COUNTING AND CARBON MAPPINGDECoRuM® (Domestic Energy Carbon Counting and Carbon Reduction Model) is a next generation GIS-based toolkit for carbon emission reduction planning with the capability to measure, model, map, and manage current energy-related CO2 emissions from existing UK dwellings, aggregating them to a street, district, sub-urban, and city level.

It is used to estimate household level carbon emissions and evaluate the potential for energy efficient retrofit measures and low carbon technologies at household and urban scales. DECoRuM® can evaluate the potential and financial costs for domestic CO2 emission reductions by deploying a whole range of best practice energy efficiency measures, low carbon systems and renewable energy technologies. This approach was implemented in our projects in Oxford and Bicester.

The application of DECoRuM® in a case study in Oxford shows that reductions in CO2 emissions above 60% are possible at a cost of £6-£77 a tonne of CO2 saved, depending upon the package of measures used, and the scenario of capital cost employed (low cost or high cost).

The Group provides a professional research and consultancy service to help local authorities, energy advisers and the property industry to apply DECoRuM® carbon mapping in their cities in order to report, monitor and improve the energy efficiency of both public and private buildings.


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EVALUATING LOW CARBON COMMUNITIESThe EVALOC project run in collaboration with the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford seeks to assess, explain and communicate the changes in energy use due to community activities within six selected case study projects under the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Low Carbon Communities Challenge (LCCC) initiative. LCCC is a government supported initiative to transform the way communities use and produce energy, and build new ways of supporting more sustainable living.

The project involves a two-pronged methodological approach using complementary and integrated qualitative and quantitative survey methods for data collection and analysis. To undertake an integrated evaluation, the research programme is divided into two core elements:

Community Level Action Research which involves working interactively with the communities and its residents through focus groups; and community events.

Household Level Monitoring and Mapping of the effectiveness and impacts of the DECC interventions on energy consumption on an individual level. The household level research has several streams including carbon mapping (specifically DECoRuM®); household level monitoring and occupancy feedback; energy display libraries and trials; and social network analysis.


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ADVANCED LOW CARBON REFURBISHMENTThe LCBG offers design, guidance, energy modelling, post construction and in-use evaluation for low-carbon ‘new build’ ie, for low carbon new-builds and retrofits, particularly using passive, bioclimatic methods combined with low and zero carbon technologies. By providing a comprehensive consultancy service at each lifecycle stage of the building process, we have evolved a valuable knowledge and experience base of tackling performance gaps in advanced low carbon refurbishments. Our services include pre-retrofit evaluation, initial briefing support, modelling of conceptual design, post construction fabric testing, review of handover process, review of qualitative feedback from occupants, design and construction team, ‘in-use’ monitoring for resolving initial issues and fine-tuning. Our three key projects currently running are:

NELSON STREET, OXFORD typical 1800s end terrace house

This retrofit project in Oxford achieved reductions in energy consumption of 85% by using an optimum mix of energy demand-reduction measures and well-proven zero-carbon technologies.

WARWALL STREET, LONDON typical 1990s mid terrace house

Winner of the 2011 3R Awards for ‘Best small housing project’ - a scheme celebrating the most innovative and effective retrofits launched by The Architects’ Journal, Construction News and New Civil Engineer.

WHITEHAVEN, CUMBRIA 1930’s semi-detached properties

Uses the ‘first, low-energy; then, low-carbon’ approach which encourages energy demand-reduction measures before deploying a nominal level of well-proven zero-carbon technologies that can be easily integrated into the urban fabric.

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GLOBAL COMMON CARBON METRICSThe Low Carbon Building group offers expert technical advice to organisations like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to help create a common global language for measuring and reporting the energy consumption in, and associated greenhouse gas emissions from, buildings across the world.

� Globally harmonized methods for measurement, reporting, and verification of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions such as the ‘Common Carbon Metric’ are fundamental to inform international mechanisms for carbon trading, policy development and analysis, and progress reporting on the mitigation of GHG emissions from buildings.

� The World Bank report on decarbonising national building stocks explored pathways to achieve significant reductions in CO2 emissions from the existing building stock of developed and rapidly-developing countries to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change

� The CRC project created a coherent, robust and research-based Monitoring and Measurement service in the building industry, which is faced with a plethora of carbon reduction targets and commitments.

COMMON CARBON METRIC (CCM) measurement, monitoring low carbon buildings

The Common Carbon Metric is the calculation used to define measurement, reporting, and verification for GHG emissions from the operation of buildings of particular climate regions.

DECARBONISING NATIONAL BUILDING STOCKS Standards, strategies, policies and challenges for carbon reduction in UK, USA and India

Our report published by the World Bank on ‘Decarbon-ising national building stocks’ has set agendas for the World Bank Urban Development Group for cities and climate change.

COUNTING THE ‘REAL’ CARBON (CRC) measurement, monitoring low carbon buildings

Creation of a rationalized set of Building Performance Evaluation monitoring protocols for domestic, non-domestic buildings, new-build and retrofitted buildings.

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TEACHINGThe group runs the ‘Sustainable Building: Performance and Design’ Master’s programme, at the Oxford Brookes University, a unique multidisciplinary course exploring sustainable design principles and issues at an advanced level. The programme is taught by a variety of professionals, experts and researchers associated with the built environment and offering student’s practical training and input from leading edge research.

It equips students with the knowledge, skills and tools to be able to design, plan, evaluate and advise on the creation of low-carbon, sustainable buildings as well as evaluate the environmental impacts of their decisions. The course is specifically designed to meet the need for buildings to be judged by their actual performance as much as by their appearance and to demonstrate sustainability in terms of their global and local impact and their ability to positively contribute towards sustainable development and human well-being.

RESOURCE BASEThe group owns a wide range of specialist equipment for monitoring and testing in buildings, which are available as part of our services.

� Infra-red thermal imaging cameras – FLIR � Co-heating testing equipment � Wireless whole house monitoring systems – Eltek, Radiotech � Energy display monitors (electricity, gas) – Watson, Geo, Owl, � External environmental conditions monitoring – Vaisala weather station � Air quality monitoring (VOCs, NOx) � Occupancy monitoring – Passive Infrared Detection (PID), open-close state sensors to monitor door-window opening

� Performance testing for low carbon systems (PV, heat pumps, solar thermal, MVHR)

� Internal environment monitoring and logging (Temperature, Light, Relative Humidity, CO2)


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It is critical that designers, clients and building users understand how their buildings perform. Since 2004 Professor Rajat Gupta and his team have completed over 20 post occupancy evaluations of our buildings and we are also currently collaborating with OISD on two very interesting TSB funded research projects. We have developed a very good working relationship with Rajat and his team over the years and enjoy the rigour of thinking they bring to assessing building performance. We look forward to continuing our work together to learn from and improve upon the buildings we design.

Ian Goodfellow Partner at Penoyre and Prasad LLP

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Low Carbon Building Group

School of Architecture Oxford Brookes University

Headington Campus Gipsy Lane

Oxford OX3 0BD United Kingdom

Professor Rajat Gupta Director of Low Carbon Building Group

[email protected]

Phone: 01865 484049 Fax: 01865 483298

OISD012

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LOW CARBON BUILDING RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY · for low carbon buildings, research policy and sustainable design. The group leads a portfolio of evidence-based cutting-edge research